Justice upholds Ayuso's case for the time being and maintains early elections in Madrid

MadridIt thus proves right, for the moment, the acting president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who signed the decree of convocation on Wednesday, shortly before the PSOE and Más Madrid registered two no-confidence votes in the Madrid parliament. Ayuso, however, did not inform the Assembly of the convocation once the two motions had already been dealt with and the decree of convocation was not published in the Official Gazette of the Community of Madrid until the following day.

This led the Bureau of the Permanent Deputation of the Assembly of Madrid to accept the dissolution, but to file an appeal with the TSJM to decide whether or not the call is valid. So far the court has responded to the injunctions after allowing the weekend for a decision, but like the 14-F suspension (the initial suspension of the Catalan elections), which was also challenged, the injunctions have yet to be resolved and there is still a ruling to be made.

Despite the judicial mess, all parties are already gearing up for the election campaign. Ayuso herself on Wednesday presented the appointment as a moment in which the people of Madrid have to choose between "socialism or freedom". On Friday, the PSOE ratified its current spokesperson, Ángel Gabilondo, as its electoral candidate, despite initial rumours that it would be the Minister of Defence, Margarita Robles. Más Madrid, in turn, is also backing its spokesperson, Mònica Escudero, while Podemos is in doubt as to whether it should be Isa Serra, also its spokesperson at the state level, given the possibility that she will soon be disqualified. Finally, the leader of Ciudadanos, Inés Arrimadas, has avoided appointing Ignacio Aguado to the electoral race for the time being.

Arimadas is in a more than critical situation after the failure of the operation in Murcia, which has shown that her party is in trouble and has called an executive committee for Monday to give explanations and analyse the situation. As for Vox, the candidate would also be its spokesperson, Rocío Monasterio, the first to pressure Ayuso's PP to call elections and avoid a no-confidence motion by PSOE, Ciudadanos and Más Madrid. The first polls place both Podemos and Ciudadanos outside the parliamentary arc, given that in order to gain access they have to win more than 5% of the votes.